Baked Fried Rice -- The Annual Celebration That Requires Beauty and Rice

Mid-May. Mother's Day. Miya's card: a drawing of a woman (me) standing at a stove with the word "LOVE" written in both English and Japanese (the Japanese characters wobbling but correct). Below the drawing: "Happy Mothers Day Mama. Your food is love and your love is food. That is the same thing." The literary criticism of an almost-eight-year-old is, once again, the only review that matters. Your food is love and your love is food. That is the same thing. The thesis of the blog. The thesis of the book. The thesis of the life. Written on a piece of construction paper in marker by a child who has been eating the thesis her whole life and has digested it so thoroughly that it emerges as her own words, in her own handwriting, as her own truth. The digestion is the inheritance. The inheritance is the card on the refrigerator.

I called Barbara, who talked for thirty minutes about the Ashland garden and Gerald's knees and a production of The Glass Menagerie that she is not directing but has opinions about (Barbara always has opinions about productions she is not directing, which is every production in Ashland except the ones she directs, and her opinions are always correct, which is both a gift and a burden to every theater company within a fifty-mile radius).

I called Ken, who talked for three minutes about the garden. The daikon is growing. The shiso is planted. The weather is warm. Three minutes. Three topics. Three sentences per topic. Nine sentences total. Nine sentences from a man with Parkinson's who is seventy-one and gardening and making miso soup and reading Japanese garden design books and living the quiet, stubborn, enduring life that Nakamuras live, the life that does not announce itself but simply continues, the way a garden continues, the way a daikon continues, the way a silence continues.

I made Mother's Day chirashizushi — pink rice, pretty toppings, the annual celebration that Fumiko started and I continue and Miya will continue. Three generations of chirashizushi on March 3rd and May Mother's Day and every occasion that requires beauty and rice and the particular love that is expressed by placing salmon next to avocado next to tamagoyaki in a pattern that is both arrangement and prayer.

Chirashizushi is the prayer — pink rice, careful arrangement, Fumiko’s tradition made mine made Miya’s — but rice, in any form, is the constant. This baked fried rice is the weeknight version of that same devotion: humble enough for a Tuesday, worthy enough to carry the thesis Miya wrote in marker on construction paper. When Ken says nine sentences and the daikon is growing and Barbara is correct about everything she didn’t direct, what you need at the center of the table is warm rice, made with care, which is the same thing as love.

Baked Fried Rice

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups cooked day-old white rice (or short-grain Japanese rice)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat & prep. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil.
2. Mix the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, white pepper, and remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Set aside.
3. Combine the rice. In a large bowl, break up the day-old rice with your hands or a fork so no large clumps remain. Add the diced onion, garlic, ginger, peas and carrots, and half of the green onions. Pour the sauce over the rice and toss to coat evenly.
4. Transfer & top. Spread the rice mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish. Dot the surface with small pieces of butter. Use the back of a spoon to create three or four small wells in the rice and pour the beaten eggs into the wells.
5. Bake. Bake uncovered for 30–35 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden and the egg is just set. At the 20-minute mark, gently fold the egg into the surrounding rice and smooth the top back down, then return to the oven for the remaining time.
6. Finish & serve. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with the remaining green onions and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. Serve directly from the dish.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 320 | Protein: 10g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 45g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 680mg